ABA Rule of Law Initiative

The American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative (ABA ROLI) was established in 2007 by the American Bar Association to consolidate its five overseas rule of law programs, including the Central European and Eurasian Law Initiative (ABA CEELI), which was created in 1990 after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The foundation of CEELI was the concept of the ABA organizing a historic international pro bono assistance program, placing hundreds of lawyers overseas to work side-by-side with their legal reform counterparts.

Today, ABA ROLI is one of three entities within the ABA Center for Global Programs (CGP), which also includes the ABA Center for Human Rights (CHR) and ABA Representatives and Observers to the United Nations (UNR). In 1997, the ABA launched the UNR Committee, which manages our official UN NGO Observer status; and is administered in collaboration with the ABA’s Section for International Law. In 2001, the ABA formed CHR which promotes and protects human rights defenders worldwide by mobilizing lawyers to help threatened advocates, protecting vulnerable communities, and holding governments accountable under law.

As the largest voluntary association of lawyers, judges, and legal professionals in the world, the ABA pursues its Goal IV: Advance the Rule of Law through ABA CGP, which implements the ABA’s international programming. As a pioneer in the provision of access to justice and protecting those most vulnerable around the world, ABA CGP has implemented more than 1,000 initiatives to help advance the rule of law in over 100 countries in the past three decades. In 2024, CGP implemented 89 programs in over 76 countries across Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Europe and Eurasia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the Middle East and North Africa.

Throughout its history, ABA ROLI has had more than 500 professional staff working in the United States and abroad, including a cadre of short- and long-term expatriate volunteers who, since the 1990s, have contributed more than $400 million in pro bono technical legal assistance. ABA ROLI’s in-country partners include government ministries, judges, lawyers, bar associations, court administrators, legislatures, and civil society organizations.